I recently spoke with a fellow consultant who has invited me to speak to a group of CEO’s about Collaborative Leadership and about how to keep the leader involved with the team as they move forward on the implementation plan. It is important to allow the leader the opportunity to consult and to hear progress rather than to enforce accountability. In collaborative leadership, accountability is a supportive process created through accountability partnerships where there is an opportunity to report action steps , discuss and solve challenges and finally to celebrate completion.

So often teams get lost in the action process and are not encouraged to seek support especially in some highly competitive situations. The accountability partnerships change this. These partnerships are created in the second meeting of the four meetings mentioned above:

• Each team member selects someone that they have not had that much opportunity to work with.
• They set up a schedule for a 15-30 minute meeting with the partner and create several goals that they are working on during the next week.
• The meeting occurs mid-week to see how everything is going.
• Then they report back to the team during the next full meeting about completions and challenges.

For full description of the Collaborative Leadership/Team Alignment process be sure to visit the Library Page of  our website and select the article entitled, The Full Team Alignment Process, pdf.

The most important thing to remember is to engage everyone in implementation and in the development of their own leadership in the process.

Do you have a question, challenge or particular success story you would like to share? Be sure to leave a comment, I would enjoy hearing from you. –  Patricia

• We do not function as a team.
• I have no idea what “they” are doing.
• I am asked questions that I cannot answer.
• My boss never lets me know what I am doing well.
• The follow through after a meeting is not there.
• We discuss things and never get the final decisions in writing to move forward.
• Meetings are cancelled frequently with no new meeting made.
• I have to keep track of my team because I do not know how or if they are moving forward.
• My directs have teams that are not meeting the goals and I want them to do better

Team engagement in Strategic planning beginning at a high level can be part of the move to greater collaboration in the team. First a focus on communication, accountability and solutions leads to greater willingness and ability to vision and make decisions. Then using that ability and newfound familiarity with each other allows the strategic planning process to move forward successfully with full participation in planning and most importantly in implementation.

In my last post I introduced the Strategic Planning process, and discussed the first of the Four High Level Questions that I ask during the the offsite for the Strategic process.

1. Creating the Future—What Behaviors Do We Want to Bring Forward?
2. Expanding the Brand—Who Are We and Where Are We Going?
3. Investing in People—What Are the Important Values and Are They Aligned?
4. The Essential Elements for Growing the Business – What Values are Important to Our Customer?

I’m delving into the second question specifically today, Who Are We and Where Are We Going, which focuses on expanding the Brand, using high level strategic thought, expression and discussion from all team members that can then move into strategies for specific business areas.

The self definition of the first part, “who are we”, is something that is rarely brought forward in a strategic planning meeting. However, it is a huge part of creating engagement and the collaborative mindset that moves through the obstacles to unified action. As each leader gives their sense of the quality of the organization, what are the important goals, where are we going, and shares this with the team, it is amazing how much new information there is.

So often we assume we understand other people’s relationship to the work and we are just as often not accurate.

The second half of the question, “where are we going”, allows for the vision of each person to be brought forward within specific areas of the business.

During the last Strategic process offsite that I led, the confidential feedback given during the Team Alignment Strategic Interviews was presented in writing without identification. The team was then divided in half to come up with strategic goals for four specific areas of the business that were identified by the feedback given to the four high level questions during the individual strategic interviews.

The leadership team was then divided into two groups to begin the strategic plan. The feedback to the questions was available so they could see what others had presented. The connection between team members that was developed within each small group, was vital and occurred quickly following the team alignment process which had been held previously. So often strategic meetings are large and discussion is limited. Certain people often do not contribute in the group and may have thoughts later that are communicated to only one person, and more importantly, people do not become as engaged in the implementation as is necessary for a higher percentage of desired results.

In this particular offsite, the strategic plan, based on the answers to the four questions, brought forward a vision for the end of the current year, 1 ½ years forward, and three years ahead with clear action steps to create those results.

Because this was a Senior Leadership team of a large global unit of the business, each of the team members had a regional team to lead. Before participating in the Collaborative Leadership/Team Alignment process, these senior leaders were not aware of the challenges and best practices of their peers and the supporting teams. Accountability partnerships for completion of goals created consultation and support. Following the team alignment process offsite meeting, partnerships were created and SKYPE and phone calls used to have regular peer meetings with a partner, fostering the sense of connection and unity as the business is growing.

Once you have an initial strategic plan:

1. Create clear and measurable statements
2. Assign metrics for each strategic goal
3. Discuss issues and challenges of this goal
4. Map out clear Implementation steps
5. Establish accountability partnerships within the leadership team
6. Agree on next steps and due dates to be followed up on in the accountability partnerships

I  invite you to contact me via e-mail patricia@bridgingassociates.com to create an appointment for a 30-minute free coaching/consultation appointment to discuss the strategic planning process in detail and to see what you can use for your next team meeting. Please provide the best number to reach you and three available times you can meet via telephone or Skype (if you have that available), and my office will call you to confirm an appointment.

As always if you have a thought, challenge or success story you’d like to share please be sure to leave a comment!

So far I have given you tips on:

• Creating a 4 meeting jump-start process for your team
• Improving Communication to create quality connection and alignment, the four parts of speech that create partnerships with greater results
• How to create a process for accountability that can be implemented with specific actions and partnerships

Creating high performing teams in your organization through regular communication and accountability develops the roadmap for a solution focused culture; one that encourages creative thinking and innovation, producing greater results.

When your teams are solution-focused, everyone has the opportunity to participate in a proactive way to create solutions. For your next team meeting create greater collaboration by:

Present an initiative, goal or area of issue to the team that is important to the strategic plan.

1. Divide the main team into smaller focused groups that each present their piece of the project and challenges they are facing to the other groups to solicit input and suggestions.
2. Have each group create specific plans during their presentation that include implementation and immediate actions steps.
3. Encourage individual team members to meet off line with their accountability buddy to help them move forward with challenges.

When you move from an I-Pod to a We-Pod culture you lead through collaboration; understanding the primary importance of the team you are member of can carry greater potential than the team you lead. In other words, make the team of your peers a laboratory for bringing forward the collaborative culture mind, utilizing the Communication, Accountability and Solution Focus ideas as a  proactive member of your own leadership team.  Encourage solution-focus vs. blame by creating an environment where team members feel comfortable sharing ideas and challenges and have regular a forum in which to do so.

If you ‘re interested in exploring the Collaborative Leadership, High-Performance Model more in depth, be sure to check out our upcoming virtual class series starting May 15.

Do you have a solution-focus success story or challenge to share? I’d enjoy hearing from you; please be sure to leave a comment.

I have been talking about the process of team alignment and harnessing the power of your organization in my last three blog posts suggesting you have four team meetings devoted to the team process, in addition to the regular staff meetings you have as a team leader. These meetings are focused on team communication, connection, accountability and partnership, and on creating the context for bringing forward the talent, creativity and innovation that is crucial to organizational success.

As promised, today I am outlining the fourth meeting in the series of creating collaborative leadership for the team, which is solution-focused, and provides an opportunity to move forward in a more dynamic way. In the process devoted to Collaborative Leadership through Team Alignment, the Solution Focus takes half a day to define and to have an actual work session to design an initiative or a detailed action solution. Then, in the renewal meetings, these qualities are emphasized and built into regular solutions throughout the year.

Elements of the Fourth Meeting and renewal meetings moving forward:

• Team members report what has gone well and where the challenges are, remaining solution- focused vs. blame-focused.
• From the challenges presented, one can be selected for moving forward into a solution. Often this will involve some inquiry from others to create clarity in the situation, not to look for causative factors.
• As the team moves forward, time should be given to the solution in the next staff meeting so that people have time to think about their offered suggestions. This creates the base for collaboration that is empowering, and accountability that taps into the strengths of each person on the team.
• Devote a part of each meeting moving forward to presenting wins and challenges, and to giving each team member a time to receive the input of other team members on their particular challenge.
• It has been found that the usual meeting model of each business leader giving a report of business does not engage everyone in the room; rather it becomes a report to the leader and to those who stay engaged. The important information for engaging the team in shared leadership is to look at what works (the wins) and what is not working (challenges), and what engages everyone in solution focus. The usual report can be handed out for reading once the important aspects have been said in the meeting.

Remember, Collaborative Leadership: How to Harness the Power in your People is the how-to for creating results now. Click on my published article Organizational Development through Creating Culture Change for more information on the four aspects for creating greater productivity in your organization.

If you have questions or would like to contribute to the discussion, I would enjoy hearing from you. Please be sure to post a comment. For more information on creating cultural change within your organization visit http://bridgingassociates.com/

• Take a few minutes for each team partnership to review their projects individually and to set some accountability agreements for the coming week. This is an opportunity for the leader of the team to model reporting on his/her goals and progress over the last weeks, and to request specific support.

• Then give an opportunity for each person to give a brief, 2-3 minute, account of progress in fulfilling the opportunity to make agreements, have the supporting conversations, and to create the results.

• Have Team Partners discuss any implementation details, and take time to set up check-in calls during the week, for 15 minutes.

• Close meeting.

Stay tuned for my next post on the fourth meeting which is solution-focused, and gives team members the opportunity to think about and present an area of challenge where a solution is needed. One of the reasons I developed the Team Alignment Process was to move teams into habitually using the Solution Focus rather than blaming or deconstructing to see where it went wrong in the past. Solution Focus focuses on creative thinking which leads to innovation and better results.

A complete general description of the Team Alignment Process appears on the website http://bridgingassociates.com/ in the tab Team Alignment at the top of the Home Page.